EBO
News Summary:
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1. Suu Kyi held in notorious jail
2. ASEAN to step up pressure on
3.
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Suu Kyi held in notorious jail
From CNN Bangkok Bureau Chief Tom Mintier
is being held in one of the country's most
notorious prisons, CNN has confirmed
through the U.S. Embassy in the country.
Sources have told the embassy that the
Nobel Prize-winning opposition leader
is being held at the Insein prison, known
for its deplorable conditions, near the
capital
She is being held in a specially
constructed hut in the prison grounds, rather than
in the main cells where former inmates have
described poor conditions,
mistreatment, and the torture of political prisoners.
Little has been known about Aung San Suu
Kyi's whereabouts since she was
detained on May 30 after supporters of her party,
the National League for
Democracy, clashed with a pro-government
group in the north of the country.
On Thursday the British Foreign Office
said it had been informed that Aung San
Suu Kyi was being held at Insein,
apparently still wearing the clothes she wore
when she was taken into custody.
Officials said she was being detained
under the "most draconian" of the country's
military laws.
There has been no confirmation or denial
of Aung San Suu Kyi's whereabouts
by
The government has allowed representatives
of the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit other NLD
detainees but not Aung San Suu Kyi
herself.
------------------------------
ASEAN to step up pressure on
Myanmar; mission being prepared to Yangon
by P. Parameswaran
member
military-ruled country to meet with democracy icon Aung
San Suu Kyi, a
minister said Friday.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said ASEAN foreign
ministers, who
ended their week-long meetings here Friday,
were disappointed that their
Suu Kyi from detention or implementing promised
constitutional reforms.
Minister Win Aung, gave "half
answers" and "was not forthcoming", Ople
complained.
"We were disappointed," he told
reporters.
He said
Nations (ASEAN) for an early release of
its opposition leader because of
pressure from across the globe, especially with
the
Union stepping up
sanctions.
"We are actually trying to avoid a
situation where
completely isolated from the international community
and before they are
economically crippled by these sanctions," Ople said.
He said ASEAN would send a ministerial
mission to
San Suu Kyi at an indefinite date.
"But certainly, the mission will be
taking off and going to
the October ASEAN leaders summit in
leaders."
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda, the new chairman
of the
policy-making ASEAN standing committee, is to lead and
prepare the composition
of the mission, Ople
said.
The mission may be comprised of his
counterparts from the
The 10-member grouping also includes
Preferably, the mission would like to meet
with the opposition leader "as a
free person so that she can talk to us without
any restrictions," Ople said.
Ople said the visit would aim to speed up the
tempo of constitutional
reforms promised by
countries which have gone through a similar
struggle" in their history.
Asked whether
call for Aung San Suu Kyi's early release, Ople said "that will be too
drastic."
But he said the
binding all governments.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar had suggested at the
meetings
here that ASEAN adopt a declaration on human
rights, which would bind all
member states, including their legislature and
their courts.
"I think if we are governed by a
declaration on human rights, then we can
properly sanction violations of such a
government," he said.
Asked what kind of sanctions he was
referring to, he said: "In the extreme
form of sanctions, it can mean expulsion from
an organisation."
Ople said
San Suu Kyi was being held in a
"government guesthouse with all the amenities."
The popular leader has been held
incommunicado since being detained after a
junta-backed mob attacked her supporters on May 30, in
violence feared to have
left dozens dead.
But
two-room hut in the grounds of notorious Insein
prison.
"A government guesthouse can be a
jail of course," Ople said, responding to
the revelation.
Win Aung told his ASEAN counterparts that
"one of the greatest misfortunes
is that the government rulers of
"Well, they can always shed the
uniform and this is precisely what the
political reforms mean under the new constitution
of
minister told reporters.
He added that Win Aung asked them not to
pressure him too much as he might
lose his job.
"But I told him that if you handle
the job properly, you can in fact be
promoted."
-----------------------------------
Japan's vice FM to visit Myanmar
to seek release of Aung San Suu Kyi
senior vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro
Yano to
immediate release of pro-democracy opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Yano will arrive in
a meeting of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue
(ACD) in the northern Thai city of
Chiang Mai, a foreign ministry official
said.
"Our vice minister is to meet
high-ranking officials of the
government and demand her immediate release,"
the official said.
"But so far, we don't have any plan
to ask the
him see Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit."
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